Data are transmitted over the Internet in datagrams, which are structured blocks of bits. Each datagram contains header information organized into a maximum of 14 different fields (specifying many things, including the source and destination addresses) and a data area that contains the actual data that are transmitted. One of the 14 header fields is the header length field (denoted by HLEN), which is specified by the protocol to be 4 bits long and that specifies the header length in terms of 32-bit blocks of bits. For example, if HLEN = 0110, the header is made up of six 32-bit blocks. Another of the 14 header fields is the 16-bit-long total length field (denoted by TOTAL LENGTH), which specifies the length in bits of the entire datagram, including both the header fields and the data area. The length of the data area is the total length of the datagram minus the length of the header.
a) The largest possible value of TOTAL LENGTH (which is 16 bits long) determines the maximum total length in octets (blocks of 8 bits) of an Internet datagram. What is this value?
b) The largest possible value of HLEN (which is 4 bits long) determines the maximum total header length in 32-bit blocks. What is this value? What is the maximum total header length in octets?
c) The minimum (and most common) header length is 20 octets. What is the maximum total length in octets of the data area of an Internet datagram?
d) How many different strings of octets in the data area can be transmitted if the header length is 20 octets and the total length is as long as possible?
